Symposium Highlights

“All of us work with people—we help people help themselves—but rarely do we take time for ourselves,” said Robert Dilts at the start of the Hero’s Journey, “Over the next two days, we’ll get time to regenerate.”

This first day of the mystical-sounding Hero’s Journey delved into what, exactly, is the Hero’s Journey, and then we explored our inner lives through cognitive and movement exercises.

The Hero’s Journey, a new experience for all Symposium attendees (beginning on Wednesday, instead of Thursday, as usual) is new for all participants, but it particularly goes well with the theme of this year’s conference— “Braving New Worlds—as it has much to do with the exploration of our own worlds.

The tools and resources gained from the two-day workshop, the leaders reassured us, can be used to benefit clients directly, but first, it’s important to focus on ourselves so we can later be more available and open in our professional lives. Today’s experience focused on an introduction to some of the ideas that mixed to create the Hero’s Journey—Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Gabrielle Roth’s the 5 Rhythms—as well as a somatic experiencing and integration of these concepts into our awareness.

After taking in the different methods and ideas, one participant, Sherri from New Jersey, said that these experiences really “got me somewhere.” Another participant, a social work student from the University of Maryland, said that the experiential workshop was “very empowering,” particularly in the way that it transferred ideas from the cognitive to the somatic.

At the beginning of the workshop, Robert and Deborah Bacon Dilts encouraged all participants to consider this proverb from New Guinea, “Knowledge is only a rumor until it’s in the muscle,” and to incorporate it into what we learned. Between gaining better understanding of the concepts that merged to create the Hero’s Journey experience and by experiencing it with our muscles, so to speak, participants seemed to grasp a deep and profound inspiration after today’s session.

Did you join in Part 1 of Hero's Journey? What was your experience like?